Last week, in response to widespread complaints from users, incoming eBay CEO John Donahoe promised lower listing fees. Now eBay has released their new fee schedule for 2008, and listing fees for items under $25 have been lowered by a whopping nickel. Meanwhile, final value fees in the same range have been increased by 3.50%, from 5.25% to 8.75%. So, to put it in concrete terms, if you sell an item for $20, instead of paying $1.65 ($.60 listing fee + $1.05 final value fee), you'll now pay $2.30 ($.55 listing fee + $1.75 final value fee). Wow, thanks a lot for that "price break," John. Listing fees have been decreased more for higher-priced items, but not nearly enough to offset the price hike. Moreover, there have been additional changes made to the feedback structure as well, including this gem: "Buyers will only be able to receive positive Feedback." What could possibly go wrong?

The buyer only gets positive comments thing is weird, I think it might be trying to stop sellers who say things like "I won't give positive feedback until you do"... which diminishes the feedback for sellers (which is much more important, because you can always re-list for free if they don't buy... but getting your money back if they don't send you things is much harder).

Saying that I've met people who bid on things and then changed their mind and just ignored it, and they will basically be unpunishe